Students must be able to provide proof of their gender at birth if their birth certificate does not appear to be the original or does not indicate the student’s gender at the time of birth. This does not apply to kindergarten through 4th grade students, according to Tennessee law.
The Tennessee bill, which opponents have called “discriminatory,” requires students to exercise based on their birth certificate’s gender identification and compete only against other athletes of the same biological sex.
“Governor Lee’s rush to sign this discriminatory anti-transgender law is no surprise, unfortunately, as Tennessee’s elected leaders have aggressively pushed a ‘Slate of Hate’ against LGBTQ people in recent years,” said Alphonso David, president of Human Rights Campaign. . in a statement.
“This bill makes legislation against a problem that simply doesn’t exist and targets transgender children trying to control their puberty,” said David. “Transgender children are children. Excluding and discriminating against them causes them great harm and weakens the communities in which these children feel excluded and marginalized.”